A Long-Term Visa to Germany

Germany is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Living in Germany is highly comfortable and we would like to tell you how you can obtain a D Cat (long-term) visa to the country.

Germany has an advanced economy, high living standards, and a reliable social security system. If you would like to build a successful career, relocating to Germany would probably be one of the most attractive options to consider. We must note, however, that competition is tough in the country. Well-qualified specialists with university diplomas and knowledge of the German language stand the best chance to find a job in Germany. Doctors, IT specialists, engineers, economists, and lawyers can find especially good prospects in the country. Any foreign worker in Germany has to obtain a long-term visa.

As far as studying in Germany is concerned, there are several top-class universities there. Graduates from German universities are welcomed by all sorts of international corporations offering them high salaries and wonderful promotion opportunities. However, if you would like to attend a university in Germany, you will have to apply for a D Cat visa too.

A long-term D Cat visa allows staying in Germany between three and six months. When the visa expires, you may qualify for a temporary residence permit, depending on your circumstances. The German D Cat visa also allows visiting other Schengen zone countries.

Understandably, obtaining a D Cat visa to Germany is more difficult than obtaining a short-term C Cat visa. The application processing can take up to two months. This makes it especially important to supply all the required documents to the embassy when applying for a D Cat visa. Otherwise, your application may be rejected and you will have to start the process all over again.

The International Wealth team will gladly assist you in applying for a D Cat visa to Germany. Besides, we can help you obtain a residence permit in the country. Our clients have already relocated to Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Bremen, Leipzig, Essen, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and other German cities.

How can you obtain a D Cat visa to Germany?

Let’s see what steps you have to take in order to obtain a long-term D Cat visa to Germany. This is what you have to do:

1. Make an appointment with the German embassy or consulate in your home country. Please note that you might have to wait for a few days before you can see the consul and have an interview with him or her.
2. Fill out two copies of the application for a D Cat visa.
3. Make photocopies of your foreign and domestic passports in advance.
4. Supply proof of solvency. You can bring a bank statement or an income verification letter. In case your friends or relatives in Germany are going to provide for you, they have to prove their solvency.
5. Bring photographs of yourself. Please mind that the photos have to be taken recently (not more than 6 months ago).
6. Purchase an insurance policy (with at least a 30,000-euro coverage).
7. Bring confirmations of your intention to visit Germany (plane tickets, hotel booking, etc.). If you are planning to obtain a work permit in Germany, you have to supply a job contract with a German employer. Please mind that in any European country including Germany, the employer has to justify the need to hire a foreigner and not a local person. If you are planning to study in Germany, you have to supply a document certifying that you have been enrolled in a college or university.
8. Your personal presence is absolutely required when you are applying for a D Cat visa to Germany. Since 2015, all applicants have had to have their fingerprints taken. Your fingerprints will be stored in the database for five years, which means you will not have to give your fingerprints again during this period. Please mind that children above the age of five also have to have their fingerprints taken. So if you are traveling to Germany with kids, bring them to the embassy with you.

By the way, you may have to prove that your university degree or your school education is equivalent to German degrees. This concerns both the cases of taking a job that requires professional knowledge and the cases of entering a university. Sometimes the immigration authorities or the university administration may be dissatisfied with the education certificates that a foreign person supplies. If this is the case, the matter needs to be handled with the help of the Foreign Education Equivalence Committee (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, ZAB). This is a fee-based service and besides, the inspection can sometimes take up to six month.

For this reason, we highly recommend that you should handle the matter with care and prepare for this situation in advance. It would be a pity to lose a job contract or university enrollment because your education certificates are being checked for equivalence for too long.

Would you like to avoid trouble when applying for a D Cat visa to Germany? Please write to info@offshore-pro.info and apply for our assistance in the matter. We will help you with collecting all the necessary application documents and make you prepared for the interview. Without doubt, we will gladly answer all the questions that you might have. If you would like to register a company in Germany or open a bank account there, you are also welcome to contact us.